A view of Gurley Mountain with the Madison County Elementary School football scoreboard in the foreground. (phuggins@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The company that saw a $5 million judgment it won in 2011 taken away by the Alabama Supreme Court last month, is asking the court to reconsider its ruling.

M&N Materials, owned by Brian McCord and Brian Nelson, is asking the state's high court for a rehearing on the issue of whether the Town of Gurley's efforts to prevent a rock quarry from being built on M&N's land in the town limits was an unlawful "taking" of the company's property.

M&N won a $5 million judgment, including attorney's fees, in February 2011, following a civil trial that pitted the company against the Town of Gurley and its then-Mayor Stan Simpson.

McCord said the company filed a notice last week that it plans to seek a rehearing and its argument brief has to be filed by Jan. 11.

"We have filed for a rehearing, we're prepared where we need to go," McCord said. "We're still of the opinion that they took our property. We'll get relief wherever we have to."

At the 2011 trial, Gurley argued there was no taking of property, but jurors were unpersuaded. Simpson was found without liability by the jury.

Town officials said there was no way a town the size of Gurley could pay such a judgment and they appealed, while also making plans for a possible bankruptcy filing.

On Dec. 21, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed the jury's decision, finding that Gurley's actions did not constitute a taking, which the court said under Alabama law requires physically disturbing the property.

Gurley officials called the reversal of the judgment against the Town, a surprise Christmas present.

A public hearing by the Alabama Department of Environment Management is scheduled for Jan. 17 for discussion about the quarry proposal.

The quarry battle in Gurley began in in 2003 when M&N began buying land with the idea of building a rock quarry. The property was next to Gurley, but after word of plans for a quarry became public in 2003, area residents, including the future mayor Simpson, began to complain.

Gurley held a referendum in 2004 and voters approved annexing the property into Gurley. Gurley zoned the property for agriculture use, effectively preventing the construction of a quarry.

M&N was denied a business license for the quarry in 2004. M&N sold the property to Vulcan Materials in late 2004. Vulcan had an option to buy the property from M&N for $3.75 million, but it let the option expire and later paid M&N $1 million for the site.

M&N's attorneys argued the full option price would have been paid if Gurley had not taken steps to stop the quarry. The jury award covered the balance of the original option price.

It was a $2.75 million verdict, plus 6 percent interest. The interest owed was just over $1 million, according to court records.